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Uncertainty and fear in Nederland for victims of Cold Springs blaze

Some got out with only the clothes on their backs

By Karen Antonacci

Staff Writer

Posted:
07/09/2016 10:09:20 PM MDT

Updated:
07/09/2016 10:40:03 PM MDT

A woman who asked to be referred to as S. Anthony sits with her daughters dogs Henry and Yumba as they wait at the Nederland Middle/Senior High School which was turned into a makeshift evacuation center. Anthony is visiting her daughter, whose home was evacuated because of the fire. (Autumn Parry / Staff photographer)

Cold Springs-area residents stood in small groups in the Nederland High School parking lot Saturday evening trying to discern if the Cold Springs Fire was devouring their homes.

Dan Harrison watched, arms crossed.

"I wish we could get more information about what street it's on, or which houses, or something," he said.

Neighbors joined him outside the school and asked what he'd seen from watching the smoke.

"Black, which I think means it's on houses...I've seen 12 black plumes so far," said Harrison, who had recently bought a house in Longmont.

Harrison's family was due to move to Longmont next month. But Saturday, they were unable to retrieve anything from their home.

"All we've got is the dog and the clothes on our backs," he said.

Later, however, he learned that the fire appeared to exclude the area where his home is located.

Roughly 50 evacuees at the high school were hungry late Saturday for information about which houses were affected by the fire.

Lester Karplus and Karna Knapp said their house is right in the middle of the affected area.

"I just saw smoke come up the valley by the next house over, and then I saw flames come up and ash rained down," Karplus said.

Karplus said they own four horses. As they saw the fire approaching a dirt road by their home, they succeeded in getting two horses ridden to safety. They aren't sure about two other horses, but hope their neighbor, a firefighter, let them out as they were battling the blaze.

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Knapp said the couple moved to the Nederland area eight years ago with a backpack and suitcase each.

"It's just stuff," Knapp said.

Jimmy, 28, Zach, 26 and Elizabeth, 21, who did not give their last names, were all camping in the area when the fire started, they said. The trio from Alabama said the fire sparked up in the early afternoon and seemed to spread extremely quickly because of the windy and dry conditions.

"The scariest thing I've ever seen," Jimmy said.

In the high school cafeteria Bryon Lawrence sat with his wife, dog, and cat.

They live off of Ridge Road, he said, adding that he was in Boulder, grocery shopping, when he heard about the fire.

"When I got home I just looked to the west and it looked really close to us. We had fire boxes packed, so we got out of there," he said. "You think it will happen someday, you just don't think it will happen now."

Lawrence said his neighbors are out of town, so they tried to go back and get their neighbors' dogs. But firefighters had already closed the road.

He hoped that animal control was able to get the dogs out.

"It's a risk that you take when you live up here...We'll just have to see what happens. I'm a little bit in shock," he said.

Through much of the afternoon, the sun shined weakly through a thick orange haze, which shifted later through shades of grey and white as the day wore on.

By evening, those watching the fire saw that the smoke pouring forth from it had lessened.

But questions about what the new day would bring still weighed heavily.

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